Epidemiological, Pathophysiological and Clinical Peculiarities of Graves’ Disease in Children with Down and Turner Syndrome: A Literature Review

Malgorzata Wasniewska, Tommaso Aversa, Filippo De Luca, Mariella Valenzise, Maria Francesca Messina, Fortunato Lombardo

Department of Pediatrics, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.

DOI: 10.4236/health.2014.612178                

Abstract

Aim: to describe the salient relationships between Graves’ disease (GD) and both Turner syndrome (TS) and Down syndrome (DS). Design: to conduct a secondary analysis of current literature on this topic. Results: 1) the prevalences of GD in TS and in DS young patients are 1.7% and 6.5‰, respectively, i.e. higher than that in pediatric general population (around 1‰); 2) in both these chromosomopathies GD presentation is often preceded by Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) antecedents; 3) in both TS and DS, GD presents with a clinical picture very similar to that observed in GD patients without these chromosomopathies; 4) in TS, clinical course of GD under pharmacological therapy is very similar to that observed in non-TS girls; 5) in DS, clinical course of GD under pharmacological therapy is less severe than that in non-DS patients. Conclusions: in the children with either TS or DS, GD is characterized by two common epidemiological peculiarities, i.e. increased prevalence rate and elevated frequency of HT antecedents.

Keywords

Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases, Chromosomopathies, Clinical Course, Hyperthyroidism, Prevalence

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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